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What to get for $80?

I've been putting off getting a new card now for more than four months now it's time. I can spend around $80. I play games once in a while but since HL 2 and Deus Ex 2 is coming out I'll be playing a lot more. That's it $80...

If you're going to want to play HL2 and Deus EX2 i wouldn't recommend wasting $80 on any card on the market right now. I would either A: Wait until the Radeon 9500 series comes down to $80 or some other cheaper version of DX9 card comes out or B: Spend more money and buy a better card by selling that Geforce2 and adding the funds to your videocard pool.
I would highly recommend focusing on buying something that will support dx9 if you can stand to wait a little longer. those games won't be out for a few months anyway.

The sad thing is is that he'd only get about $20 for that Geforce2. No one wants them anymore, I told my friend to do the same thing with his Geforce2 and then I went to eBay and saw just how low they were going for. The only way to up that resale value is to pawn it off to an unsuspecting friend/family member in dire need of an upgrade. Underhanded? I know. But hey, if you really want to be able to play the two best games coming out this year...

I wouldn't even get $20 for that card. No way not today! I couldn't even give it away. I have stuff for sale now that's almost free but still no takers. It's funny when one has hardware/software for sale and at a great price nobody ever buys it.

All I want is a decent $80 video card. I'm not looking to show up anyone with bragging rights about how fast or great MY card is. And I don't care about the "latest" technology x9yx85x or whatever.

Well if you absolutely can't wait and you don't want to sell that videocard and 250 mb of that ddr and maybe wash a few windshields or shine some shoes then i would suggest maybe the radeon 8500(not the LE) 64mb version. You can pick them up on ebay for $80. The Radeon 9000, 9100 and 9200 would be next on my list.

At default speeds it is pretty much even with its closest nVidia competitior, the Geforce3 Ti500. But when you factor in anisotropic filtering performance (very small performance hit compared to this same feature being unusable on a Geforce3 due to performance drops) and overclockability (both in raw MHz and ease of overclocking via the pencil mod) the 8500 is a better buy. The 8500 also has the edge at higher resolutions.

Originally posted by F_A_L_C_O_N yup it is the LE version but unlike Sapphire version which runs at retail speed of 250/250 this one runs at 250/200

however you will most likely OC it no problemo to 250/250 and even at default speed this is not at all bad card as wrathchild_67 mentioned allready

Oh and hopefully someone in US will come with some reputable internet store that also has Sapphire, though I must say I never had problems with Amazon (Europe) fingers crossed

I never had any problems with Amazon either up until my last order. I ordered three items and they sent two of them ONE MONTH LATER. That's how long it took. And the items were in stock too. One month to ship? they lost me.

come to think of it a friend of mine had a problem with some books delivered when after a month or so they told him that his card was not valid, later they realised they (not him) misprinted expirey date and the books came after 2 month or so, still I had no problems jet and hope it stays that way

Originally posted by F_A_L_C_O_N come to think of it a friend of mine had a problem with some books delivered when after a month or so they told him that his card was not valid, later they realised they (not him) misprinted expirey date and the books came after 2 month or so, still I had no problems jet and hope it stays that way

If you could stretch your money a bit you might pick up a GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB card like this Gainward one for $112 (no TV out or DVI). The memory is rated for 570Mhz, so it should overckock to 285/570 minimum or possibly 300/600 (the speed of the 4600):

I know this is a bit over your price range, but these are much faster cards. At $112 you will only need to scrape up about $30 (also all these price include free shipping). You might be able to get that much for your card. A TNT2 M64 runs $25 new and a GeForce2 MX runs $35. A GeForce4 MX 440SE just barely runs faster and costs $45-50. Used it should be worth $25-35 (especially if it has TV out). E-Bay might have them for only $20, but you need to pay $5-10 for shipping and it is likely a junk brand without TV out.